We visited an area of archaeological sites. Here are some graves in an ancient cemetery of the Puyuma tribe. They were rediscovered during the Japanese occupation, and are a few thousand years old:
More recently, these graves, lined with slabs of slate from the mountains, were accidentally discovered during the construction of a lookout tower. The bones, jewelry and artifacts are now in a museum just down the hill from here. The graves are all oriented so the feet of the interred pointed toward the sacred mountain Mt. Dulan.
In the afternoon, we went to Bunun Village, where we attended a performance of Bunun singing and dancing, featuring their famed eight-part harmony, unique among the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Here are two Bunun performers in traditional dress:
The hand-in-hand two-step line dance formation, men on one end and women on the other, is common throughout many of the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, the result of mutual cultural influences.
The singing style is unique among the Bunun, however. Here is an example of traditional dance.
The dance performance was fascinating...the traditional parts at least, like the above. They also gave a performance of the sacred pasibutbut: enter that word into YouTube and you'll experience this intriguing form of music. But just as I feared, they also did something that's a major pet peeve of mine: they gave performances of modern music, complete with cheesy disco-like beats and non-traditional boogie-style dancing. Modern variations on traditional music have their place, but a cultural exhibition is not one of them. Ancient tribesfolk didn't use synthesizers, dammit!
Like many of the Aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, the Bunun used to be headhunters, as illustrated by this sculpture. The depiction quite accurately matches the descriptions of 19th century ethnographers, right down to the shape and length of the knife used for decapitation. The ferocity of the Aborigines was known far and wide back in the day, making for an interesting twist to intercultural relations in the 19th century and before. It's one of the reasons that Taiwan was not widely settled by outsiders until the 17th century. The practice of headhunting was brought to an end by the Japanese during their occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945).
Camel's foot tree (Bauhinia purpurea):
While at Bunun Village, I bought a bottle of millet wine, a sweet, mildly alcoholic drink that's traditional among the Aborigines. It's also authentic, described by ethnographers of centuries past.
While this village was created around a decade ago as a cultural showcase and some of the music presented by the performers is modern, much of the art and culture presented here is authentic, and it's a good place to learn about their culture. It also contributes to the economic condition of the Bunun, providing a channel in which cultural preservation is given economic incentive in this modern world. And the entry fee is only NT$150, the ticket qualifying you for a NT$100 discount on a gift purchase. Not a bad deal at all!
After our visit, we went back to the train station, and rode to Kaohsiung, then took the High Speed Rail back to Taipei. So we did a trip around the island entirely by rail! And I must add, the High Speed Rail lives up to its name. Kaohsiung to Taipei in a mere two hours!!
